


Ghost Portraits

by DeckofDragons



Category: Luigi's Mansion (Video Games), Super Mario Bros. (Video Games)
Genre: E. Gadd's not a very good person sometimes, Gen, Ghosts are people, Post 1st Luigi's Mansion, but Luigi is so pure and sweet anyone who befriends him eventually ends up becoming a better person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:00:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27615932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: Luigi is a bit bothered by some of the implications of things he'd encountered during his ghost busting debut.
Relationships: Professor E. Gadd & Luigi
Kudos: 42





	Ghost Portraits

**Author's Note:**

> I replayed all the Luigi's Mansion games recently (in a rather janky order: 2nd, 1st, then 3rd) and in them are several differences in how E. Gadd interacts with the ghosts. In the 1st one he's dead set on getting his ghost portraits back. But in Dark Moon, he seems to be working with the ghosts and clearly on friendly terms with them before the Dark Moon shatters. And in the 3rd one, at the end he and the heroes help the ghosts rebuild their hotel after King Boo destroys it. So basically my headcanon is that E. Gadd changed his ways due in large part to his befriending of Luigi and this is a short little thing exploring the beginning of the process.

E. Gadd was a strange man, probably the strangest Luigi had ever met. A mad genius, he’d dedicated his life to studying ghosts and overall had the air of someone who didn’t interact with people much. Despite that though, he’d helped Luigi a lot and generally seemed to be a good person. Except for _one_ thing that haunted Luigi enough to bring him back here to E. Gadd’s lab only a handful of days after his ghost hunting adventure had brought him there initially.

He had to ring the doorbell three times before E. Gadd finally answered. “Oh Luigi,” he said, seemingly pleased to see him again. “What are you doing here? Oh, I know, the thrill of ghost hunting has enchanted you and now you’re back for more.”

“Uh… nope, that’s not it at all.” If Luigi had it his way he’d never see another ghost in his entire life. “I have a question about ghosts though if that’s all right”

“Oh, of course, come right on in.” E. Gadd stepped back and gestured Luigi in. “What’s your question?” he asked eagerly once they stood in the middle of his lab once more.

Luigi couldn’t stop his eyes from wondering over the Ghost Portrificationizer – being the biggest thing in the room, it was hard _not_ to look at it. “Uh… ghosts are people, right?”

“People who have died, yes. What else would they be?”

“I don’t know just… When I was fighting them the other night,” if it could even be called ‘fighting’ in some cases, “some of your escaped portrait ghosts didn’t really attack me. I uh… sort of attacked them first.” He’d had to because they’d held keys that had let him progress further into the mansion and ultimately save Mario but maybe he could’ve tried a more peaceful approach and been successful. He’d been far too scared to even consider it at the time though and thus had done exactly what E. Gadd had told him to do; capture them with the Poltergust.

“Well, yes, not all ghosts are feisty and ready to fight all the time. What of it though?” Did E. Gadd really not see what Luigi was getting at here?

“Well uh…” Luigi forced himself to meet E. Gadd’s gaze. “What I mean to say is that because they’re people maybe keeping them trapped in portraits is wrong and you shouldn’t do it. Meaning uh… that you should let the ghosts go and stop turning them into portraits.” There he’d said it, now it was time for E. Gadd to get mad and yell at him or something similar. And then Luigi would have to decide how hard he wanted to stand his ground in defense of _ghosts_.

But… despite Luigi’s worry, E. Gadd didn’t seem mad. His large glasses made his expression hard to read so it was hard to know for sure but he was certainly at least thinking about it before responding. “Hmmm… I suppose you may have a point. But how am I supposed to study ghosts if I have none to study? Also, I worked rather hard on this,” he patted the side of the Ghost Portrificationizer, making a hollow clang, “after learning of King Boo’s power to turn people into portraits, not using it anymore would be a waste.” It wasn’t anger or refusal though so maybe Luigi had a chance to convince him to do what was right even if it would involve more spooky ghosts being released into the world again.

“Maybe you could ask some ghosts to help you in your studies, I’m sure some would if you give them some kind of compensation.” Did ghosts have a need for money? They certainly seemed to like to collect and hide it in various places so maybe. “And perhaps you don’t have to let this technology go to waste, it can pull someone _out_ of a portrait too. Maybe focus on that aspect of it and… try to streamline it or something.”

“Hmmm… hmmm… I suppose I could. It is rather big and clunky, isn’t it? ... Ooh, I know, I could work on making a portable version. Where to begin though?”

“And releasing the ghosts?”

“Oh that, I can do that.” E. Gadd gave him a dismissive handwave as it really weren’t a big deal. “A willing participate would be easier to get data from anyway. I’m not sure why I never thought to ask. Oh well, science is an ever changing artform, it’s never too late to start doing things more efficiently and uh I suppose ethically too. And besides, I was starting to get tired of those specific portraits anyway. I was thinking of selling them, freeing them works too I suppose. You think King Boo would let me run tests on him if I asked nice enough?”

“Uh… maybe don’t release him yet after what he did to Mario and uh… tried to do me too.” Luigi couldn’t help but shake a little at the thought. King Boo had been justified in freeing the ghosts E. Gadd had captured as portraits but capturing Mario and turning him into a portrait had crossed a line. And how _gleeful_ he’d been about it made it pretty clear he had no regrets and thus there was a decent chance he might try to do so again. Especially since, based off the things he’d said about Mario, he was clearly the type to hold a grudge and now he had rather good reason to want revenge on Luigi too and that was _not_ something Luigi had any wish to deal with.

“Hmm… I suppose you’re right, he probably wouldn’t cooperate. Being the newest, he’s my favourite portrait anyway so I’d like to keep him a bit longer. But come on now sonny, help me start figuring out how to make this smaller and eventually portable.”

“Uh… okay.” It’s not like Luigi had anything better to do today anyway, right? And this conversation had turned out far better than he’d hoped it would, he might as well stick around to help a little if he could. And while he was here, he could make sure E. Gadd would indeed do the right thing and free the ghosts.


End file.
